Category Archives: vegetarian
Perfect Grain Free Primal Pizza Recipe and Video
My sister and her fiance are in the kitchen, once again, cooking up some grain free deliciousness! My parents gave Micah’s gluten free pizza two thumbs way up when he recently cooked it for them! If you have been missing your pizza, this Paleo couple claims that this pie is the real deal!
Ingredients:
For the Crust:
1 cup Organic Tapioca Starch
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese
4 Tbsp melted palm oil
1 Tbsp water
1 organic pastured egg
For the Toppings:
1-2 cups of Organic Pizza Sauce to your taste
1-2 cups raw or grass fed cheese (optional)
1 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
1 cup thinly sliced bell peppers
1/2 cup sliced olives
1/4 cup fresh chopped basil or parsley
Cooked grass fed beef crumbles or other meat of your choice
(and whatever other toppings you desire, be creative!)
Things you will need: mixing bowl, Round Pizza Stone
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 390 degrees with pizza stone in oven.
-Combine all crust ingredients into mixing bowl and stir/knead with spoon until consistency is doughy and can be kneaded by hand (adjust ingredients if necessary)
-Cut two pieces of parchment paper a length equal to its width
-Place one piece on the counter, apply some oil to the paper, and place the dough in the center.
-Push the dough out as flat and apply some more oil to surface of dough.
-Place 2nd piece of parchment paper on top of dough and roll out with pin until the crust touches the edge of the paper on all four sides (or close to it)
-Remove top parchment paper (save it for next time)
-Use finger to push a crust up around the dough and round it out a bit
-Apply sauce and toppings
-If you have a pizza pan or a peel slide pizza (parchment paper and all) onto the pan the transfer onto stone.
-Cook for about 20 minutes.
-When removing pizza simply hold a round pan in front of stone and slide the pizza on to pan. If you don’t have a pan very carefully pick the pizza up using the parchment paper and place on the counter.
-Allow it to cool, cut and serve!
Watch the Video Tutorial:
If it sounds a bit confusing let my sister’s fiance Micah, (aka the Paleo pizza expert) expound on the subject in the following video! He claims this is the best recipe for Primal pizza and he has been working on perfecting it for the past two years.
Are you looking for more nourishing grain free recipes?
Get this great e-book for getting started on a grain free plan!
It has over 90 grain free recipes to get started on a healthy lifestyle!
This post is linked to a Fat Tuesday blog carnival at realfoodforager.com
Caitlin Weeks
Caitlin Weeks, BA, Certified Nutrition Consultant, C.H.E.K. Holistic Lifestyle Coach, and NASM Certified Personal Trainer is a San Francisco based Holistic Nutritionist serving clients locally and beyond (US & international) via phone and Skype consultations. Since 2001 Caitlin has had success conquering obesity after a lifelong struggle with her weight. Since 2009 she has been winning the battle over Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis by managing stress and using a paleo diet. She is committed to educating others about the benefits of traditional foods and efficient exercise. She writes weekly articles about health and nutrition on her blog: www.grassfedgirl.com
Follow Me:
Comforting Paleo “Lentil” Soup
When I was growing up my stepmom loved Jane Brody and she thought beans and brown rice were the pinnacle of health foods. I don’t think beans and rice are so bad if your diet is low in refined foods and you are generally healthy.
My diet as a child could be defined as carboholic. The problem with beans and rice is that it has never filled me up the way meat does. I could eat bowl after bowl of this legumy goodness and I did (and it showed)!
Savory lentil soup will always have a comforting place in my heart even if I don’t eat it anymore. This recipe has all the great flavors of lentil soup without the hard to digest lectins and phytates which cause gut irritation and malabsorption of important minerals/vitamins.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp Grassfed Organic Ghee
1 large head of cauliflower (6-8 cups)
1 chopped onion
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced carrot
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp paprika
Real Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of home made broth
1 cup coconut milk or 2 tbsp coconut cream concentrate
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil (optional)
Directions:
Melt the ghee over medium heat in a soup pot. Add the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic. Then saute for about 5 minutes. When the onion is translucent, add the cauliflower, tomato paste, broth, vinegar and other spices. Add the coconut milk and stir until melted. Simmer with a lid on the pot for 20 minutes until the cauliflower and carrots are soft. Remove from heat. Use an Immersion Blender to blend up the soup to the desired consistency. Top with olive oil if desired.
This recipe is perfect for the 21 Day Sugar Detox because it is sugar free and low carb.
Are you looking to get healthy in the new year?
Do you want to get rid of your sugar addiction?
Caitlin Weeks
Caitlin Weeks, BA, Certified Nutrition Consultant, C.H.E.K. Holistic Lifestyle Coach, and NASM Certified Personal Trainer is a San Francisco based Holistic Nutritionist serving clients locally and beyond (US & international) via phone and Skype consultations. Since 2001 Caitlin has had success conquering obesity after a lifelong struggle with her weight. Since 2009 she has been winning the battle over Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis by managing stress and using a paleo diet. She is committed to educating others about the benefits of traditional foods and efficient exercise. She writes weekly articles about health and nutrition on her blog: www.grassfedgirl.com
Follow Me:
Why Buy Soy Free Pastured Eggs?
Much of the soy grown today is used for chicken feed for factory farming operations. Chickens who are raised on pasture are healthier and have a better nutritional profile than poultry raised in large scale, overcrowded CAFO’s. We are only as healthy as the animals that we consume so it important to think about the food chain and how it affects our constitution. The following reasons are why it is important to seek out soy free pastured chickens and their eggs whenever possible.
Reasons to seek out pastured and soy free whenever possible:- The U.S. Department of Agriculture did a study in 1993 where hens were taken off pasture and fed a diet of soy, corn, wheat or cottonseed meal. When the chickens were not fed their natural diet they didn’t lay as many eggs and the few chicks that developed from the eggs had higher rates of death and illness.
- Soy is one of the most common food allergens and many people who think they are sensitive to eggs are just allergic to the soy that concentrates in the yolks.
- Chickens are omnivores and are actually descendents of Velociraptor, a small meat eating dinosaur. Chickens are designed to eat mice, snakes, bugs, worms, and insects. It is not natural for their diet to be 95% “vegetarian” corn and soy.
- Chickens that eat corn and soy will have an imbalanced omega 3/6 ratio, making these poultry products inflammatory foods for humans. A pastured chicken that is free to roam on grass and eat bugs will have a 3/1 ratio of omega 6/3 which means eating these chickens and their eggs will be restorative for health. The average American is very inflamed with a 20/1 ratio of omega 6/3, which is a good indicator of future health risk for heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
- Commercial chicken feed often uses recycled vegetable oil from restaurant fryers as a filler. Some experts believe that eating factory farmed chicken has similar effects on the body as drinking soybean oil.
- Research indicates that soy isoflavones are transferred into the yolks of chickens which are fed a diet concentrated with soy feed. When humans eat soy fed chickens these estrogen mimicking hormones can accumulate causing various health problems.
- Soy contains isoflavones that accelerate growth in chickens by depressing thyroid function creating unnatural weight gain which increases market value of fowl.
- When chickens are fed soy, high concentrations of estrogen mimicking hormones end up in the yolks causing disruption in human fertility, upsetting the delicate hormonal balance in men and women.
- Most soy in the USA is genetically modified which causes abnormalities in hampster studies after several generations. GMO’s have not been adequately tested on humans and eating soy filled eggs could cause unintended changes in future human DNA.
- Children are especially sensitive to hormones from soy contaminated chicken and can have irregularities in sexual development.
- Pastured chicken that are eating worms and insects have more omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E, vitamin A, folate and vitamin B-12 than caged, stressed, and overcrowded chickens. Pastured eggs are higher in the anti-oxidants lutein and zeaxanthin which helps in prevention of macular degeneration and colon cancer.
- Eggs from pastured hens have vitamin D levels 3-6 times higher than the eggs from hens raised in confinement. Pastured hens are exposed to direct sunlight, which their bodies convert to vitamin D. When chickens have enough vitamin D they have higher egg production. A high soy diet can even deplete stored of vitamin D in chickens and humans.
- Uncluttered free roaming Pastured chickens are very sustainable and create their own nitrogen rich fertilizer which helps grow more grass and other vegetables.
- Rainforests are being clear cut in South America for the production of soybeans to feed chickens in high volume over-crowded operations.
Conditions at some large scale CAFO operations
- Visit the farm if possible
- Get to know the farmer and ask lots of questions
- Make sure chickens have free access to sunshine
- Chickens have ability to forage for bugs in the dirt
- Rotated to new grass periodically
- Supplemented diet with leftover kitchen scraps
- Fed grasses like nettles and other greens
- Humanely treated without beak or toe clipping
- “Certified Humane” label is helpful
- Organic is important but not a sole criteria
- “Animal Welfare Approved” is a good label
- “No Antibiotics” label is important and regulated
Sometime organic is not enough
Fluffy Qualifications:
- “Cage free” and “free range” are mainly just buzz words and not regulated
- Flax feed used to create”high omega-3″ is not necessary since the EPA and DHA cannot adequately be converted by humans
- Vegetarian Fed (chickens are not vegetarians)
- Organic means they are fed organic corn and soy which is not ideal
- Organic chickens can still be overcrowded and have in-humane conditions
- Pictures of barns and farms on cartons are just marketing propaganda
- No hormones is not helpful since hormones are not allowed to be used on chickens by the USDA
- No antibiotics is a helpful label and is regulated by USDA
- USDA Organic can be used if a product is only 95% organic
- “Pesticide free” really has no regulation
- “Natural” also has no meaning/regulation
Sources:
Balanced Bites podcast with Karen Pendergrass
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11758913
http://www.westonaprice.org/childrens-health/eat-eggs-and-have-chicken-too
Ask the Low Carb Experts with Dr. Kayla Daniel
www.marksdailyapple.com/a-beginners-guide-to-backyard-chickens
http://www.eatwild.com/animals.html
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/unsaturated-oils.shtml
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/nov/11/chefs-soy-sustainable-farming-rainforest
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/ofp/ofp.shtml
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-smith/genetically-modified-soy_b_544575.html
Don’t Be Soy Sorry:
If you want to read more about how soy affects us, read this great book:
Caitlin Weeks
Caitlin Weeks, BA, Certified Nutrition Consultant, C.H.E.K. Holistic Lifestyle Coach, and NASM Certified Personal Trainer is a San Francisco based Holistic Nutritionist serving clients locally and beyond (US & international) via phone and Skype consultations. Since 2001 Caitlin has had success conquering obesity after a lifelong struggle with her weight. Since 2009 she has been winning the battle over Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis by managing stress and using a paleo diet. She is committed to educating others about the benefits of traditional foods and efficient exercise. She writes weekly articles about health and nutrition on her blog: www.grassfedgirl.com
Follow Me:
Seasonal Seranade- Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients:
1 tsp nutmeg
Directions:
Caitlin Weeks
Caitlin Weeks, BA, Certified Nutrition Consultant, C.H.E.K. Holistic Lifestyle Coach, and NASM Certified Personal Trainer is a San Francisco based Holistic Nutritionist serving clients locally and beyond (US & international) via phone and Skype consultations. Since 2001 Caitlin has had success conquering obesity after a lifelong struggle with her weight. Since 2009 she has been winning the battle over Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis by managing stress and using a paleo diet. She is committed to educating others about the benefits of traditional foods and efficient exercise. She writes weekly articles about health and nutrition on her blog: www.grassfedgirl.com
Follow Me:
Mock Mashed Potato Recipe
Ingredients:
2 large organic turnips (Optional)
1 head organic cauliflower
Fresh sage
Sea salt (to taste)
Fresh ground pepper (to taste)
1/2 cup to organic Native Forest Organic Classic Coconut Milk
1/4 cup fresh chopped chives or parsley
Directions:
Peel and boil turnips until soft. Steam the cauliflower until soft but not mushy. Put all veggies into your food processor and slowly add coconut milk while pulsing until mixture reaches the desired consistency. Add sage and pulse again. Add salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle cut chives on top and serve warm with your main dish. You can put Grassfed Organic Ghee on top if desired.
Serve as pictured with the this great Braunschweiger from US Wellness Meats or any of your favorite meats.
Looking for more help?
This is a great recipe to go along with the 21 Day Sugar Detox
Sign up now, dump the junk and get rid of your sugar cravings!
Caitlin Weeks
Caitlin Weeks, BA, Certified Nutrition Consultant, C.H.E.K. Holistic Lifestyle Coach, and NASM Certified Personal Trainer is a San Francisco based Holistic Nutritionist serving clients locally and beyond (US & international) via phone and Skype consultations. Since 2001 Caitlin has had success conquering obesity after a lifelong struggle with her weight. Since 2009 she has been winning the battle over Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis by managing stress and using a paleo diet. She is committed to educating others about the benefits of traditional foods and efficient exercise. She writes weekly articles about health and nutrition on her blog: www.grassfedgirl.com
Follow Me:
